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I’m going to the Duran Duran concert at Harvey’s Outdoor Arena in Tahoe this weekend.

The 12-year old in me is REALLY excited.

I clearly remember laying in my bed, listening to Duran Duran songs with my sister when we were still in grade school.

Which brings me to my next subject.

My sister.

She is coming with me to the concert and has arranged a really nice dinner and hotel stay for us at the MontBleu Resort, Casino and Spa.

You may recall that we’ve done this a few times before: Elton John (where we lost our nice stadium seats and I peeped my pants a little in the back of an uber); and Sting and Peter Gabriel’s Paper, Rock, Scissors tour (where I consumed an allowable amount of alcohol and DIDN’T get lost or pee my pants on the way back to our hotel).

This concert is DOUBLY exciting though.

Stargazer will be there with a friend as well.

He was interested in going and when he heard that I had tickets to the concert, he bought a pair for him and a friend.

So HE’S going too!

Personally, I hope that Duran Duran (4 original members out of 5 are back in the band) plays a few of my favorite songs:

White Lines

Electric Barbarella

Ordinary World

Notorious

Rio

Hungry Like the Wolf

Girls on Film

Wild Boys

and The Reflex

I seriously CAN’T WAIT for my short work week to end and to see Duran Duran in concert WITH MY SISTER!

The first thing you need to know about my trip to Tahoe to see Elton John is that I am in my early 40s. And although I didn’t realize it at the time I was buying the tickets, that makes me a little young for Elton’s demographic.

When I pointed this out to my sister, the man sitting in front of us said, “I heard that,” and gave us a scowl.

The second thing you need to know is that even BEFORE WE HAD DINNER at a nearby restaurant, my sister and I polished off a fifth of vodka. Yum yum! Thank you very much. We had a nice buzz going which is why we had two glasses of wine each with dinner.

Yeah, I know. You can see where this is headed already.

So we had dinner and drinks and then called a cab to take us to Harvey’s to see Elton John.

My sister had ordered two stadium seats for this event specifically and she told me, “Make sure we don’t forget them.”

Yes, I’m sure you can see where this is going.

While we each drank 4 Lagunitas Sumpin Sumpin beers, Elton John performed:

Bitch (which Lisa and I agreed was Gavin’s theme song)

Benny and the Jets

Goodbye Norman Jean

All the Young Girls

Levon

Tiny Dancer

Love

Daniel

Philadelphia Freedom

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Rocket Man

I Guess That’s why They Call it the Blues

And then I got too drunk to actually write anything else down that makes an iota of sense to me now.

But THE BEST PART was how Lisa and I got home.

We actually were so drunk and turned around we couldn’t find our hotel a mere 4 blocks away so we HOPPED INTO A PRIVATE CAR WITH A COMPLETE STRANGER and my sister paid him $40 to drive us 4 blocks to our hotel.

BUT THERE’S MORE…. I had to go to the bathroom so bad, I peed a little in my pants when we were in his car.

Last year, my friend Nadine and I hosted Oktoberfest at the local bar on Thursday afternoon Happy Hour at Burning Man.

It was a total riot!

We played German music and served ice cold (well, compared to PLAYA temperatures) German beer to thirsty guests.

We had such a good time, we decided to do it AGAIN!

Nadine took care of the beer and bought several pony kegs of light and dark German beer for us to serve.

I took care of the music.

I was careful to download SEVERAL Oktoberfest playlists from Spotify, since last year’s fiasco of a super short playlist of German oompa music played on repeat until my head was pounding from horns and drums.

This year I used “Oktoberfest Hits 2019” by Megaparty, and BOY! was it a hit!!!

It included very basic Oktoberfest music along with a bunch of German pop music (like Johnny Däpp).

The quinceañera party for the 15 year anniversary of the Village took place on Monday afternoon on the playa at the local bar, aka the bar I worked at from 10 pm to 12 am serving drinks to thirsty guests.

I got dressed up in all my quinceañera finery:

It was fun to celebrate with other villagers and even though only ONE OTHER PERSON got dressed up in theme (thank you, Moonbeam), I had a great time drinking spiked horhata and eating churros.

Of course, as I was bartending, I had to card everyone before pouring them a drink.

In my quinceañera dress.

A couple of young kids, barely legal (but legal, nonetheless) came by and asked for drinks.

I carded them – they looked YOUNG – and noted that they were all 23 or younger.

They asked me why I was so dressed up.

“It’s my quinceañera!” I told them.

One snarky young lady said to me, “Now I need to see YOUR ID!”

They all laughed heartily at her joke.

Rude!

But true.

A 45-year old woman in a pink frilly dress and a tiara is not something you see everyday.

I’m not gonna lie, I made a few phone calls while I was at Burning Man.

Mostly to Stargazer, but also to my family.

Stargazer and I have been dating since August 21st when he took me out to pizza at a nearby pizza place and ordered my favorite Golden Greek pizza.

It takes a brave soul to eat a pizza covered in feta cheese, sausage, onions AND BANANA PEPPERS.

He saved me when my son backed out of taking me to my rideshare in Concord.

He took me out for waffles and fried chicken and even helped me get tampons and dry ice when I was running errands (without a car) before we left for Burning Man.

Stargazer is AH-MAZING!

He also made me bacon jerky, which we gobbled up on the way to Burning Man, and a chess pie, which is like a pecan pie without the pecans.

I like Stargazer a lot.

He met me after the burn and helped me load my stuff in my truck.

He took me to the hot tubs to soak afterwards and was a perfect gentleman (perfect for me is handsy but not ballsy, don’t forget).

And because I mentioned that I was sad I couldn’t stop for Indian tacos at the reservation during the drive home (I was taking the Burner Express bus), he MADE ME FRY BREAD.

It was yummy with a spoon delicious!

He learned to make it when he was in the Boy Scouts camping with Native American kids, FYI.

I also missed out on the big pickles that the food stands sell along the freeway so STARGAZER MADE ME HOMEMADE DILL PICKLES.

Just because he’s such a wonderful man.

Truly, unbelievably kind and thoughtful.

At first, I was going to call Stargazer “The Baker” on account of his love of baking.

But then in a matter of days, his true playa name revealed itself to me and I realized that this tall man who has his head in the clouds, his hands in pastries, and his mind on the cosmos, was destined to be called Stargazer.

I believe wholeheartedly that he will be at Burning Man next year to enjoy the art, community, and ME!

As luck would have it, we pulled into our parking space at our camp at 6:15 am, meaning it took us a mere 2 hours to get through Gate.

OMG!

The universe was working with us.

But I’m not surprised.

Nadine and I seem graced with good luck and serendipity.

I managed to catch a brief one and a half hour nap in the RV but overall, that was all the sleep I got in a 36 hour period.

I was ready to sleep Sunday night.

The first day at Burning Man is always a blur of setting up camp, day drinking, and reuniting with the camp community.

I cracked open a cold one once my tent was set up and enjoyed my Corona Premier (so named because apparently it’s lite beer, not REAL beer) while watching the city spring up around me.

I ate a can of little weenies fully expecting that would be the extent of my sausage experiences at Burning Man [HINT: it was].

My food bin, filled to the brim with snacks and booze, managed to make it to the playa with zero casualties.

As hot as it was (it was in the 90s the entire time we were there), I managed to stay cool in the shade and before I knew it, I was going for a ride with Nadine and scoping out some of the awesome art and cars out on playa:

Resting after setting up camp

Cookie Monster art car

Another art car

More art cars

Look at those breasts!

Art on the playa

The Man from a distance

Kinetic art sculture in Center Camp

Metal art car and burner girl

Not shabby at all for my first day at Burning Man, running off of 90 minutes of sleep!

I spent the better part of the burn slowly drinking a million gin and tonics, with a few margaritas, picklebacks, and rum and cokes thrown in for good measure.

On Thursday I loaded up my backpack with water, goggles, lights, dust mask, and a few gin and tonics and I went to the Grateful Floyd camp to watch rare footage of Pink Floyd Presents Delicate Sounds of Thunder.

I went with two friends – Yummy and Nadine.

We dragged chairs with us and the Grateful Floyd camp passed around snacks for one and all to enjoy.

I found myself mesmerized by the images on the screen – a combination of concert footage cut with odd bits of minutiae.

The film was captivating and I found myself lost in the most haunting version of “Comfortably Numb” that I’ve ever heard.

Also, and I’m just going to go ahead and put this out there, I think “Wish You Were Here” is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and I could listen to it on repeat for days.

All in all, we had a TON of fun at the Pink Floyd movie and I was really happy that Nadine and Yummy made me step out of camp and watch the video.

The music was incredible, played over an obviously well-thought-out sound system.

I found myself transported to another time and place by the music and the imagery and in my altered state, I had a blast relaxing and pretending like I was in 1987 in the Omni Coliseum in Georgia listening to Pink Floyd live on stage.